The treescape portraits in If Memory Was a Layer convey ideas about growth, change, and the quest for personal identity.
As people journey through life shapeshifting, they try on different personas and adapt to each new environment.
With age and experience comes the shedding of those parts of ourselves that no longer reflect who we are. The beauty of these transformations emerges from the constant practice of learning self-love. In fluid states of being and becoming, we find acceptance in the promise of our own ever-renewing possibilities and in our ability to determine our own self-meaning.
The images are loosely inspired by Elizabeth Margaret Hopkins, who wrote her first book, The Painted Cougar, when she was 83 years old, at a time when she was also establishing herself as a watercolourist. The story tells the tale of a cougar who seeks external beauty in order to gain the attention of another cougar he admires. He meets various characters on his quest, including a snake with painted illustrations all over his body. Emulating the snake, the cougar returns to his kingdom, where he is admired, and he soon weds the wife he had coveted. After their wedding, she confides that she has always loved him just as he is, and as she licks away his painted illustrations, he becomes his true, complete self.
The artwork in If Memory Was a Layer recalls the cougar’s realization of his own self-worth, as well as Hopkins’s late emergence as a celebrated artist. Their experiences, animal and artist alike, remind us of the struggles we undertake in order to free ourselves from expectations. Roles are bestowed upon us, but we can choose our own paths, our own voices. We can choose the shapes we take. The play between expectation and self-determination, between experience and transformation, is reflected in these pieces. Each tiny branch, leaf, and piece of bark has been honed through layers of digital painting and collage.
The composite images evoke a sense of place. They suggest the comforting knowledge that, no matter our present circumstances, we always hold the power and potential to transform. With tranquility and confidence, we can release our past and emerge as our truest selves.
About Shira Gold
In a world oversaturated with information and moving at seemingly warp speed, Shira Gold’s contemplative photographs offer a gentle place for the eye to land. Her work draws on the natural world as metaphor, giving visual form to the sensitive subjects that leave indelible impressions on people’s lives.
Through composite imagery, composition, and negative space, Gold traces themes born from personal experience. Her art-making functions as a form of applied therapy, exploring topics such as identity, growth, loss, and neurodiversity. These narratives are woven throughout her expansive lens-based series.
Minimalism and stillness are aesthetic hallmarks of her work, inviting the viewer into a space of intention, introspection, and slow seeing. Gold hopes that through the making and sharing of her work, she not only learns more about herself, but also helps break down the barriers around discussing these often-solitary experiences. In doing so, she creates more dialogue and community around life passages that many quietly share.
Her work is attuned to the subtle discomforts that shape daily life. She is drawn to moments where vulnerability meets resilience, seeking to capture the beauty that often exists alongside challenge.
Gold’s work has garnered recognition through various international awards, including the Fine Art Photography Awards, the LensCulture Art Photography Awards, and the International Photography Awards, among others. She has been published internationally in noted publications including The Guardian, The Times, The British Journal of Photography / 1854, Dodho Magazine, PhotoEd Magazine, and others. Her art has been exhibited in public spaces and galleries throughout North America, as well as in Spain, Greece, and France.
Shira Gold currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. [Official Website]
